Page 95 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

foot-ring and reignmark foot-ring and reignmark foot-ring and reignmark
on base of 1942.9.492 on base of 1942.9.493 on base of 1942.9.494

of too much uniformity or even perfection is relieved by
the occasional dark spot, or, as in 1942.9.494, the slight
variation of glaze color on the shoulder.
Judging from those that have survived unscathed, all
vases of this type originally had fairly wide bands
(approximately one-half inch) of unglazed biscuit below
the line where the glaze ends. They must then have been
placed in special stands to maintain their equilibrium.
Such unglazed bands were apparently often ground
down to a narrower width, as seen in these examples. 7
VB

NOTES
1. Chart 1957,136-137.
2. Hobson 1925, 55.
3. Chait 1957,136-137. See also the discussion of how petal-dec-
orated vases may also be related to this bodhisattva in the cata-
logue entry for 1942.9.511-513, 521-522, though they were
apparently not called guanyin ping.
4. Ts'ao 1981, 47, no. 8, repro.; Tsai 1986, 41, no. 14, repro.; and
Li 1989,139, no. 122, repro. All refer to vases of this type as liuye
ping, or willow leaf vases. According to Clarence Shangraw, in a
personal communication, these vessels are occasionally called
by the combination term guanyin liuye ping. Teresa Ts'ao, in
Ts'ao 1981, introductory essay, mentions a guanyin zun and a
liuye zun (a zun is a vessel whose mouth and body are equal in
diameter, as opposed to a ping, in which the diameter of the
mouth is smaller than that of the body), linking the former to
the holy water vessel held by the bodhisattva, the latter to its
resemblance to a willow leaf. However, she has no occasion to
apply these names to any of the objects in her catalogue.
5. As a shape term laifu is applied to several related forms. A
peachbloom vase of the "amphora" type is described as a laifu
zun (translated as "small vase") in Wonders 1984, 64-65, no. 29,
Qing Dynasty,
repro. The same expression is used in Li 1989, 137, no. 120,
Kangxi mark
repro., to describe a peachbloom vase of the type more often
and period
called a "three string vase." The translation provided is "turnip-
(1662-1722),
shaped zun vase in peach-bloom glaze." As noted elsewhere,
Amphora Vases Ts'ao 1981, 39, no. 2, describes a peachbloom petal-decorated
(left to right): vase as laifu ping, again providing a translation, "turnip-shaped
1942.9.493, vase." Despite the ubiquity of "turnip-shaped," a case can be
1942.9.492, made that the vegetable referred to is more appropriately
1942.9.494 understood as the familiar Japanese radish, the daikon, which is

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